{Editor's Note: You will only hear of stories like this from
people who visit countries outside the USA, since the American media blackout
of this topic is very tight. We've probably already had some cell phones
towers torn down in this country, but you'll never hear about it from Big
Brother media. I heard a talk radio show on Pacifica radio about 8 months
ago in which the female host said she had recently returned from Europe
and heard many stories, while there, of cell phone towers being destroyed
by local residents. Carol Croft reported the same thing in the
article she posted at this web site of her latest Adventure
trip to Ireland. As long as 18 months ago, I was reading e-mails from a
woman who lives in Israel, of the numerous instances of locals burning down
cell phone towers in remote towns and just daring the authorities
to re-erect them. Now, that's chutzpah! ...Ken Adachi]

Activists have begun tearing down mobile-phone masts around the country,
as public concern over the health impact of the radiation they emit continues
to grow. The destruction of the masts - as many as four in a single week
- signals a dramatic stepping up of the campaign to stop them being placed
on top of, or close to, people's houses.Earlier this month, masts were brought
down at Wishaw and Dudley in the West Midlands, Crosby in Merseyside and
Tiverton in Devon. At least four have also been brought down in Northern
Ireland in recent months.

Although government advisers say there is no evidence that
the masts threaten peoples' health, those living near them have complained
of illnesses ranging from cancer to motor neurone disease. Some scientific
studies have suggested that the radiation produced by the aerials has an
impact on sleep patterns and could have health implications.

Lisa Oldham, the director of Mast Sanity, a group that campaigns
against the masts being sited close to communities, said: "We don't
condone the use of criminal acts to bring down the masts, but this does
suggest the level of protest against them.

"We are swamped with people protesting about them. There
are thousands of groups trying to get masts moved or trying to prevent new
ones being placed near their homes."

At Wishaw, a village near Sutton Coldfield, a 74ft mobile
mast was pulled down in the early hours of November 6 by a protester using
a rope and haulage equipment. The mast, which was put up 10 years ago on
a narrow patch of land between a field and a livery yard, has been blamed
for causing a cluster of cancers in the area.

Among those living in the 18 houses within a 500-yard radius
of the mast there are 20 cases of serious illness, including cancers of
the breast, prostate, bladder, lung. One man is dying of motor neurone disease.
Many of the people affected are in their thirties and forties.Since the
mast was toppled, residents have refused to let the network provider, T-Mobile,
replace it and the situation has now developed into an uneasy stand-off.

Eileen O'Connor, who lives within 300 yards of where the mast
used to stand, had breast cancer two years ago at the age of 38. She noticed
that many of her neighbours were attending her hospital with similar problems
and set up Sutton Coldfield Residents Against Masts (Scram).

"We have absolutely no idea who took the mast down, and
obviously it was a dangerous and inadvisable thing to do," said Mrs
O'Connor, who runs an internet advertising business. She and her children,
who also suffered ill-effects, sleep under copper-mesh "mosquito nets"
in an effort to deflect any mobile phone radiation.

"The first I knew about it was when I looked out of my
window in the morning and couldn't see the mast. Apparently the company
said that they lost the signal at 12.30am. Someone had unbolted the mast
and pulled it over using a rope."

Clare Villanueva, a solicitor and Scram campaigner in Wishaw,
has written to Crown Castle, the company that owns the land on which the
mast stood, saying that it cannot legally gain access to the site to replace
the mast because its path crosses someone else's land.Residents are now
carrying out a 24-hour vigil to ensure that a new mast is not set up, and
both sides are paying for security guards to patrol the borders of the land.
The locals have suggested an alternative location away from habitation for
T-Mobile to use, but this has been rejected by the company.

A spokesman for T-Mobile said that the police had been called
to investigate. "It defies belief that nobody in Wishaw noticed when
the mast was coming down," he said.

A spokesman for the Mobile Operators' Association, which represents
the five network providers on health and planning issues, said that all
its members operated within accepted World Health Organisation guidelines
for radiation emissions and there was no proof that masts caused health
problems.

She added: "The number of masts being brought down is
very small in the overall scheme of things. However, it is certainly worrying
that people are taking direct action, because they could seriously hurt
or even kill themselves."

All information posted on this web site is
the opinion of the author and is provided for educational purposes only.
It is not to be construed as medical advice. Only a licensed medical doctor
can legally offer medical advice in the United States. Consult the healer
of your choice for medical care and advice.